Pontius Pilate's wife
Encyclopedia
Pontius Pilate
's wife is unnamed in the New Testament
, where she appears a single time in the Gospel of Matthew
. Alternate Christian traditions have referred to her as Saint Procula (also spelled Proculla or Procla) or Saint Claudia, and the combinations Claudia Procles and Claudia Procula have been used. Since little is said of her in the New Testament
, and no verifiable biography exists, details on Pilate's wife are surmised from Christian tradition and legend.
, the only reference to Pilate's wife exists in a single sentence by Matthew
. According to the Matthew
27:19, she sent a message to her husband asking him not to condemn Jesus Christ to death:
Pilate did not heed his wife's warning. The name "Claudia" only appears once in the New Testament, in the Second Epistle to Timothy
4:21: "Eubulus, Pudens, Linus and Claudia send their greetings, and so all the other Christians."
's 2nd century Homilies on Matthew suggest that she became a Christian, or at least that God sent her the dream mentioned by Matthew so that she would become one. This interpretation was shared by several theologians of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Rival theologians contended the dream was sent by Satan
in an attempt to thwart the salvation that was going to result from Christ's death.
Pontius Pilate's wife is mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Pilate
(Gospel of Nicodemus, probably written around the middle of the 4th century), which gives a more elaborate version of the episode of the dream than Matthew. The name Procula derives from translated versions of that text. The chronicle of Pseudo-Dexter (1619) is the first place known where she is referred to as Claudia.
: the Eastern Orthodox Church
and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, she is celebrated on 27 October. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church celebrates Pilate and Procula together on 25 June.
Pilate's wife is often, but not usually, shown in medieval depictions of the scenes including her husband, typically standing behind him, and sometimes whispering in his ear.
She is a major character in the Tapiters' and Couchers' Play of the York Mystery Plays
cycle, where she introduces herself as "Dame Precious Percula". Her dream is dictated by the Devil. He first soliloquises to the effect that if Jesus dies, he, the Devil, will lose control of men's souls. He then tells the sleeping Percula that Jesus is innocent, and that if he is condemned, she and Pilate will lose their privileged position. She wakes and sends a message to Pilate, but Annas and Caiaphas succeed in convincing him that her dream was inspired by Jesus's witchcraft.
Pilate's wife has been featured in later literature, theatre, film and television. Charlotte Brontë
wrote the poem "Pilate's Wife's Dream" in 1846. The Biblical scholar Paul Maier
, in Pontius Pilate: A Biographical Novel (1968), attempts to take what is known from the documented record and from there construct a fictional narrative as connective material. Maier refers to Pilate's wife as "Procula" arguing that the name "Claudia" only comes from a later tradition.
Novels inspired by Pilate's wife include The Bride of Pilate (1959) by Esther Kellner
and Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire (2006) by Antoinette May. Both books use the name Claudia, and May's book depicts her parents as Roman aristocrats related by blood to Emperor Augustus
. Pilate's Wife by H.D.
(Hilda Doolittle), written between 1929 and 1934 but posthumously published in 2000, presents Pilate's wife with the name Veronica.
In theater, the life of Pilate's wife has been the subject of the dramas “A Play for Easter” by Jewell Ellen Smith and “Claudia Procula” by Curt M. Joseph. The Andrew Lloyd Webber
-Tim Rice
stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar
and the subsequent film version omits Pilate's wife and gives the dream about Jesus to her husband in the song Pilate's Dream.
In films, Pilate's wife was called “Proculla” in the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille
epic The King of Kings; Majel Coleman
played the role. She is mentioned briefly in Pilate's hand-washing scene in 1953's The Robe
("Even my wife had an opinion").Other notable cinematic references include Barbara Billingsley
in the 1954 Day of Triumph, Viveca Lindfors
in the 1961 King of Kings
(where she is identified as the daughter of the Emperor Tiberius
), Jeanne Crain
in the 1962 Italian film Ponzio Pilato, and Angela Lansbury
in the 1965 epic The Greatest Story Ever Told
.)
In the 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ
she is known as Claudia Procles (played by Claudia Gerini
). In this film, she fails in her effort to lobby her husband to save Jesus, and consoles Jesus' mother Mary and Mary Magdalene
, as she generously hands them towels to clean up the blood from his scourging.
Pontius Pilate's wife also appeared in comedy: John Case played her in Monty Python
's 1979 Life of Brian.
On television, Pilate’s wife was played by Joan Leslie
in the 1951 Family Theater
episode "Hill Number One" (also starring James Dean
as John the Apostle
) and by Geraldine Fitzgerald
in the 1952 Studio One
episode "Pontius Pilate" (where Procula is depicted a half-Jewish, and is brought before Pilate as a Christian rebel herself, 15 years after Jesus' death.) Hope Lange
played her in the 1980 made-for-television film The Day Christ Died. More recently, Pilate's wife is featured in the 2008 TV serial The Passion
, played by Esther Hall
.
Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...
's wife is unnamed in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, where she appears a single time in the Gospel of Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
. Alternate Christian traditions have referred to her as Saint Procula (also spelled Proculla or Procla) or Saint Claudia, and the combinations Claudia Procles and Claudia Procula have been used. Since little is said of her in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, and no verifiable biography exists, details on Pilate's wife are surmised from Christian tradition and legend.
Biblical references
In the New TestamentNew Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
, the only reference to Pilate's wife exists in a single sentence by Matthew
Matthew the Evangelist
Matthew the Evangelist was, according to the Bible, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the four Evangelists.-Identity:...
. According to the Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
27:19, she sent a message to her husband asking him not to condemn Jesus Christ to death:
While Pilate was sitting in the judgment hall, his wife sent him a message: "Have nothing to do with that innocent man, because in a dream last night, I suffered much on account of him."
Pilate did not heed his wife's warning. The name "Claudia" only appears once in the New Testament, in the Second Epistle to Timothy
Second Epistle to Timothy
The Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, usually referred to simply as Second Timothy and often written 2 Timothy, is one of the three Pastoral Epistles traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the New Testament...
4:21: "Eubulus, Pudens, Linus and Claudia send their greetings, and so all the other Christians."
Early Christian references and theological interpretations
OrigenOrigen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
's 2nd century Homilies on Matthew suggest that she became a Christian, or at least that God sent her the dream mentioned by Matthew so that she would become one. This interpretation was shared by several theologians of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Rival theologians contended the dream was sent by Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
in an attempt to thwart the salvation that was going to result from Christ's death.
Pontius Pilate's wife is mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Pilate
Acts of Pilate
The Acts of Pilate , also called the Gospel of Pilate, is a book of New Testament apocrypha. The dates of its accreted sections are uncertain, but scholars agree in assigning the resulting work to the middle of the fourth century...
(Gospel of Nicodemus, probably written around the middle of the 4th century), which gives a more elaborate version of the episode of the dream than Matthew. The name Procula derives from translated versions of that text. The chronicle of Pseudo-Dexter (1619) is the first place known where she is referred to as Claudia.
Sainthood
Procula is recognized as a saint in two churches within the Eastern Christian traditionEastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity comprises the Christian traditions and churches that developed in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, India and parts of the Far East over several centuries of religious antiquity. The term is generally used in Western Christianity to...
: the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, she is celebrated on 27 October. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church celebrates Pilate and Procula together on 25 June.
Purported letter by Pilate's wife
A letter, purportedly written in Latin by Pilate's wife from "a little Gallic mountain town" several years after Pilate left Jerusalem, was first published in English by Pictorial Review Magazine in April 1929. The English version of the letter was provided by writer Catherine Van Dyke and it states that Pilate's wife successfully sought Jesus' aid to heal the crippled foot of her son Pilo.In the arts
She is a major character in the Tapiters' and Couchers' Play of the York Mystery Plays
York Mystery Plays
The York Mystery Plays, more properly called the York Corpus Christi Plays, are a Middle English cycle of forty-eight mystery plays, or pageants, which cover sacred history from the creation to the Last Judgement. These were traditionally presented on the feast day of Corpus Christi...
cycle, where she introduces herself as "Dame Precious Percula". Her dream is dictated by the Devil. He first soliloquises to the effect that if Jesus dies, he, the Devil, will lose control of men's souls. He then tells the sleeping Percula that Jesus is innocent, and that if he is condemned, she and Pilate will lose their privileged position. She wakes and sends a message to Pilate, but Annas and Caiaphas succeed in convincing him that her dream was inspired by Jesus's witchcraft.
Pilate's wife has been featured in later literature, theatre, film and television. Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood, whose novels are English literature standards...
wrote the poem "Pilate's Wife's Dream" in 1846. The Biblical scholar Paul Maier
Paul Maier
Paul L. Maier was the Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University. Dr. Maier retired in the Spring of 2011. He retains the title of professor emeritus in the Department of History at Western Michigan University...
, in Pontius Pilate: A Biographical Novel (1968), attempts to take what is known from the documented record and from there construct a fictional narrative as connective material. Maier refers to Pilate's wife as "Procula" arguing that the name "Claudia" only comes from a later tradition.
Novels inspired by Pilate's wife include The Bride of Pilate (1959) by Esther Kellner
Esther Kellner
Esther Kellner was an author, animal lover, and director of Wayne County, Indiana Civil Defense.She was born in New Lisbon, Indiana and graduated from Morton High School in Richmond, Indiana in 1926...
and Pilate's Wife: A Novel of the Roman Empire (2006) by Antoinette May. Both books use the name Claudia, and May's book depicts her parents as Roman aristocrats related by blood to Emperor Augustus
Augustus
Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...
. Pilate's Wife by H.D.
H.D.
H.D. was an American poet, novelist and memoirist known for her association with the early 20th century avant-garde Imagist group of poets such as Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington...
(Hilda Doolittle), written between 1929 and 1934 but posthumously published in 2000, presents Pilate's wife with the name Veronica.
In theater, the life of Pilate's wife has been the subject of the dramas “A Play for Easter” by Jewell Ellen Smith and “Claudia Procula” by Curt M. Joseph. The Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
-Tim Rice
Tim Rice
Sir Timothy Miles Bindon "Tim" Rice is an British lyricist and author.An Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award-winning lyricist, Rice is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus...
stage musical Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
and the subsequent film version omits Pilate's wife and gives the dream about Jesus to her husband in the song Pilate's Dream.
In films, Pilate's wife was called “Proculla” in the 1927 Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
epic The King of Kings; Majel Coleman
Majel Coleman
Majel Coleman was a movie actressfrom Cincinnati, Ohio. Most of her eleven film credits are silent movie features. The name Majel means wood dove.-Film actress:...
played the role. She is mentioned briefly in Pilate's hand-washing scene in 1953's The Robe
The Robe (film)
The Robe is a 1953 American Biblical epic film that tells the story of a Roman military tribune who commands the unit that crucifies Jesus. The film was made by 20th Century Fox and is notable for being the first film released in the widescreen process CinemaScope.It was directed by Henry Koster...
("Even my wife had an opinion").Other notable cinematic references include Barbara Billingsley
Barbara Billingsley
Barbara Billingsley was an American film, television, voice and stage actress. She gained prominence in the 1950s movie The Careless Years, acting opposite Natalie Trundy, followed by her best–known role, that of June Cleaver on the television series Leave It to Beaver and its sequel Still...
in the 1954 Day of Triumph, Viveca Lindfors
Viveca Lindfors
Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors , better known under her professional name of Viveca Lindfors, was a Swedish stage and film actress.-Life and career:...
in the 1961 King of Kings
King of Kings
King of Kings is a title that has been used by several monarchies and empires throughout history. The title originates in the Ancient Near East. It is broadly the equivalent of the later title Emperor....
(where she is identified as the daughter of the Emperor Tiberius
Tiberius
Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...
), Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Crain
Jeanne Elizabeth Crain was an American actress.-Early life:Crain was born in Barstow, California, to George A. Crain, a school teacher, and Loretta Carr; she was of Irish heritage on her mother's side, and of English and distant French descent on her father's...
in the 1962 Italian film Ponzio Pilato, and Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
in the 1965 epic The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told
The Greatest Story Ever Told is a 1965 American epic film produced and directed by George Stevens and distributed by United Artists. It is a retelling of the story of Jesus Christ, from the Nativity through the Resurrection. This film is notable for its large ensemble cast and for being the last...
.)
In the 2004 movie The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ
The Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John...
she is known as Claudia Procles (played by Claudia Gerini
Claudia Gerini
Claudia Gerini is an Italian actress and showgirl.-Biography:Born in Rome from employees parents, in 1985 she won National Competition of Miss Teenager....
). In this film, she fails in her effort to lobby her husband to save Jesus, and consoles Jesus' mother Mary and Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
, as she generously hands them towels to clean up the blood from his scourging.
Pontius Pilate's wife also appeared in comedy: John Case played her in Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
's 1979 Life of Brian.
On television, Pilate’s wife was played by Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie
Joan Leslie is a retired American film and television actress.-Early life:Leslie was born Joan Agnes Theresa Sadie Brodel in Detroit, Michigan, and raised Roman Catholic. She began performing as a singer at the age of nine as part of a vaudeville act with her two sisters; Betty and Mae Brodel...
in the 1951 Family Theater
Family Theater
Family Theater was a dramatic anthology radio show which aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System in the United States from February 13, 1947 to September 11, 1957.-Production background:...
episode "Hill Number One" (also starring James Dean
James Dean
James Byron Dean was an American film actor. He is a cultural icon, best embodied in the title of his most celebrated film, Rebel Without a Cause , in which he starred as troubled Los Angeles teenager Jim Stark...
as John the Apostle
John the Apostle
John the Apostle, John the Apostle, John the Apostle, (Aramaic Yoħanna, (c. 6 - c. 100) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. He was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of James, another of the Twelve Apostles...
) and by Geraldine Fitzgerald
Geraldine Fitzgerald
Geraldine Fitzgerald, Lady Lindsay-Hogg was an Irish-American actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:...
in the 1952 Studio One
Studio One (TV series)
Studio One is a long-running American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by the 26-year-old Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC.-Radio:...
episode "Pontius Pilate" (where Procula is depicted a half-Jewish, and is brought before Pilate as a Christian rebel herself, 15 years after Jesus' death.) Hope Lange
Hope Lange
Hope Elise Ross Lange was an American stage, film, and television actress.- Early life :Lange was born into a theatrical family in Redding, Connecticut...
played her in the 1980 made-for-television film The Day Christ Died. More recently, Pilate's wife is featured in the 2008 TV serial The Passion
The Passion (TV serial)
The Passion is a television drama serial produced by the BBC and HBO Films in association with Deep Indigo Productions. It tells the story of the last week in the life of Jesus. The serial was first proposed by Peter Fincham in 2006, on the success of the contemporary-set Manchester Passion...
, played by Esther Hall
Esther Hall
Esther Hall is an English actress who has had high profile roles in a number of television dramas.Born in Manchester in 1970 and brought up in Cheshire, she took A levels in Manchester before training in Theatre Arts for three years at the University of Leeds Bretton Hall College where she gained a...
.
External links
- At Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
: Anne Catherine EmmerichAnne Catherine EmmerichBlessed Anne Catherine Emmerich was a Roman Catholic Augustinian nun, stigmatic, mystic, visionary and ecstatic....
(Clemens BrentanoClemens BrentanoClemens Brentano, or Klemens Brentano was a German poet and novelist.-Overview:He was born in Ehrenbreitstein, near Koblenz, Germany. His sister was Bettina von Arnim, Goethe's correspondent. His father's family was of Italian descent. He studied in Halle and Jena, afterwards residing at...
, ed.), The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 1904 (20th edition, first publication was 1833) (in this account of Emmerich's visionsVision (religion)In spirituality, a vision is something seen in a dream, trance, or ecstasy, especially a supernatural appearance that conveys a revelation.Visions generally have more clarity than dreams, but traditionally fewer psychological connotations...
the name of Pilate's wife is Claudia Procles, as in Mel Gibson's filmThe Passion of the ChristThe Passion of the Christ is a 2004 American drama film directed by Mel Gibson and starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. It depicts the Passion of Jesus largely according to the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John...
)